Faculty Research 1980 - 1989

Isolation and characterization of temperature-sensitive RNA polymerase II mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1987

Keywords

Animal, Base-Sequence, Comparative-Study, Genes-Fungal, Genes-Lethal, Genes-Structural, Kinetics, Mutation, Plasmids, RNA-Polymerase-II: ge, me, Saccharomyces-cerevisiae: en, gd, Sequence-Homology-Nucleic-Acid, Species-Specificity, SUPPORT-NON-U-S-GOVT, Temperature

First Page

2155

Last Page

2164

JAX Source

Mol Cell Biol 1987 Jun;7(6):2155-64

Abstract

Three independent, recessive, temperature-sensitive (Ts-) conditional lethal mutations in the largest subunit of Saccharomyces cerevisiae RNA polymerase II (RNAP II) have been isolated after replacement of a portion of the wild-type gene (RPO21) by a mutagenized fragment of the cloned gene. Measurements of cell growth, viability, and total RNA and protein synthesis showed that rpo21-1, rpo21-2, and rpo21-3 mutations caused a slow shutoff of RNAP II activity in cells shifted to the nonpermissive temperature (39 degrees C). Each mutant displayed a distinct phenotype, and one of the mutant enzymes (rpo21-1) was completely deficient in RNAP II activity in vitro. RNAP I and RNAP III in vitro activities were not affected. These results were consistent with the notion that the genetic lesions affect RNAP II assembly or holoenzyme stability. DNA sequencing revealed that in each case the mutations involved nonconservative amino acid substitutions, resulting in charge changes. The lesions harbored by all three rpo21 Ts- alleles lie in DNA sequence domains that are highly conserved among genes that encode the largest subunits of RNAP from a variety of eucaryotes; one mutation lies in a possible Zn2+ binding domain.

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